


A Madman and a Box

by locknessmonster



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: BAMF Rory Williams, M/M, Memory Alteration, Pandorica, Roman Rory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-01 03:27:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/locknessmonster/pseuds/locknessmonster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor almost too willingly fails to hide his emotions, pulling both the ponds into a strange and <em>right</em> situation whilst also retelling times lost to the Roman in the age of the Pandorica.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. There's Stuff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's Amy and te Doctor and the word "Dorkily"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't really made it clear in the text yet, it's supposed to come out later, but scenes in the TARDIS are written from the viewpoint of the TARDIS. Little interjections and the use of the word "I" are a result of this- sorry, I know I didn't make that clear at all, or have yet to.

"But could we actually find a cold star though?" Amy asked, popping up next to her boys and making one and a half of them jump. Rory spun around, suddenly glad he hadn't said what he was about to or done what he was about to do, his heart racing at the surprise and the strange feeling he'd almost been caught doing something wrong.  
The Doctor simply continued flipping levers and pushing buttons on a small square device he had hooked into the console like a video game, his madman's hair sticking up in odd angles as a pair of neat-looking goggles blurred his hairline. His tweed jacket was off somewhere in the TARDIS, which let his bracers show. Amy seemed to have a fascination with snapping them.  
And he had to admit, Rory wanted to snap them too.

"They're bound to exist somewhere. In all of time and space I've never seen one, but I do think it would be a bright idea- space is already cold, so a star that feeds on it and blends in instead of trying to heat it up is absolutely brilliant." The star-dusted man replied, taking a moment to look up at the screen above his head. When he looked back down, Rory caught his eyes for only a second and opened his mouth to say something again, but Amy accidentally cut him off.  
"Oh? D'you like that design, cold stars?" Amy asked, a sharp comeback lurking behind what she expected the Doctor's response to be.  
His tone was a little distracted as the Doctor's gaze found Rory's again and his shifted a little, thinking hard.  
"Of course I do, they're cold like my hearts." Then he turned and grinned at her. Amy only gave him a surprised look and a slight,  
"Oooo, but dark for you, isn't that?" She laughed anyways, giving him a quick hug before making her way around the console. She gave the Roman a kiss, then danced away.  
"I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when we're on the planet Iola- or when you get me some chips!" She shut the large metal door behind herself after going up the stairs. 

And that's when Rory's heart practically stopped once again, because the Doctor put down what he was doing and looked at him through the console, glass obelisk obscuring his time-filled features.  
"I believe you wanted to tell me something."  
After two thousand years of waiting, thinking about what he was going to say, figuring out things he never would have thought given any less amount of time- he was older than the Doctor now, technically. He hadn't just been waiting for Amy, he'd been... well. He knew what it was like to be lonely- yeah, there were holes in his memory but he didn't think that they were any different than the rest. He felt like he was the only person who really did understand what it felt like to have an eternity in your head, waiting for something you aren't really even sure is going to happen while at the same time... Rory never really had faith in anything. Not even his dear Doctor. But something about that eternity had made him love and hate the man at the same time.  
Because in two thousand years, he thought maybe he wouldn't have been as lonely as he was.  
Maybe having a time machine, someone would have visited him.  
"Um, yeah, actually... I think I don't need to now. I'll just, ah, go..." Rory awkwardly shuffled away, avoiding eye contact with the Doctor who he knew was still looking at him, suddenly leaning against the console halfway around.  
"I won't bite. Cross my hearts."  
"Yeah, but, you know, I'm just the, ah, stupid face. I- it's actually pretty daft now that I think about it." The Roman's eyes only met the Doctor long enough to see his expression turn serious.  
"Rory." His tone was quieter as he came one hesitant step closer, and then his posture seemed to gain all the confidence in the universe. Like, for some reason he seemed to think Rory needed saving. I could tell you a million different ways he looked at the Roman, how the stars spun in his eyes or how he seemed to almost smirk like that bastard /knew/. I suppose the easiest way to say is that he looked at the Roman with a kind of concern, worry, _care_. Gentleness that was usually saved for never was now in those deep eyes, searching out words that Rory wasn't yet willing to say. He only thought he was.  
"You're not stupid and you've never been stupid. Shut up- No, stop it." The Doctor was looking at him so intensely that the Roman took a step back.  
And then Rory's expression turned from one of confusion to one of complete... oh-that's-really-not-necessary.  
"I'm not- Amy's the one that did everything. I follow her, I die, I turn plastic, cease to exist. I don't have a room in the hotel of hell because I don't believe in anything. That's who I am. So just- keep your- never mind."  
And the Doctor-in-training let his hands fall to his sides, forgetting what he'd wanted so desperately to say, and turned to walk away.  
A small, relieved and sad sigh went ignored behind him.  
~~~~~

Several days later, the dream had woken him up from being passed out on the glass floor of the control room. God- the Doctor knew he wanted Rory- but seeing it in dream form made everything a lot more... vivid. A sort-of nervous laugh came over him, but since the Ponds weren't down here- _He's married._ \- he didn't have to worry about his embarrassment showing. It wasn't just some blind, primitive _desire_.  
"He's _plastic_ \- I mean, well, technically, /living/ plastic. His skin's only hard when it wants to be. Oh." He looked up at the pretty glass thing and made a self-reprimanding face at his word choice.  
"That wasn't very good at all. No."  
"What's not very good, Doctor?" Amy asked sleepily from the direction of the door that wasn't the exit, already at the base of the stairs. The Time Lord nearly yelped in surprise, but instead made a pseudo angry sound and tapped her nose.  
"Nothing." He stuck out his tongue at her, then dorkily (is that a word?) danced back to the book he'd been flipping through, acting like nothing was out of place. There were strange signals and sounds coming from it and he was curious.  
He did not, however, under any circumstances, expect what next came out of Amy's mouth.  
"Doctor, do you have any desire to screw my husband?"  
When he looked up sharply, his mouth instantly forming words of denial, he saw that she was smirking at him in that brilliant way she did when Amy was in control. So, her usual smile, really. It seemed the sleepiness had gone, so like usual she'd been smart enough to know how to get under his guard.  
Pond, you're fired.  
He was pinned.  
"He's _married_. To you!"  
"And you're a _Timelord_ , but that didn't stop you, did it?"  
"Stop me from what?" He replied quickly, his tone almost _afraid_ as if he'd done something wrong and was fearful of being discovered. But Rory certainly didn't remember ever being close to the Doctor-  
"Oh, don't be daft. It's soooo obvious, really, just admit it so I can tell you already." Her eyelids drooped to emphasize her point, that she knew something that he didn't. That little smirk made a reappearance, slightly irritating the not-so-medical man.  
"What do you want to tell me?" He asked, taking a wide sidestep so he could escape that trapped feeling of her gaze hot on his face. Mostly his lips. Which was a bit... reminiscent of another time when she tried to make out with him. He'd have accepted had she not been _previously engaged_. And hell, he'd have done the same to Rory if they weren't- not simply the fact that his two best friends were _married to each other,_ but that... well, they were _friends_. This regeneration wasn't too elegant in social interaction, so he'd more than likely muck it up if he even tried to go in that territory. I suppose I didn't have an opinion on this, really.  
"I wanted to tell you, Doctor, that I've caught Rory watching you work. Muttering your name in his sleep." She casually looked down at the buttons and levers, making him think that maybe he was about to die. She acted like she was masking some sort of oncoming storm he couldn't match if he _tried_.  
"I know he likes you. He's... well, I got him to talk to me about it. I must say a few of the things he mentioned were quite..." her eyes flickered up to bore a hole into his own. "detailed. So, my question is: Do you want to screw my husband? It's really a yes or no answer, I can't handle the tension between you two idiots anymore so just _answer me._ "

It's funny, because Amy could have gotten an answer out of him without lying. Well- most of what she said was true, but never in two thousand years would Rory actually _talk_ about something as complicated as an attraction to an alien who's name he didn't even know.

So the Doctor said the only thing he really could.  
He stopped his nervous fiddling, pacing around the console, sat down in the only available seat, next to the chairs, and crossed his arms, staring at the floor for words.  
"Rory is... I can't say yes or no. I suppose no, I don't want to blindly _fuck_ a _beautiful_ creature like Rory. No, he's... something to be treasured, treated like a, precious jewel. He's one of those brilliant humans- like you- who will go to the ends of the universe for something they believe in, or in his case, someone he cares about. He doesn't _act_ like a hero, but really he's... more amazing than any planet I've ever been to. If that answers your question, then great. Now," He covered his eyes with his hand for a moment before he jumped up and started working the console.  
"-I'm going to take you two home." I wanted to sigh at the misery in his voice, that thick layer of anguish that only tainted him when he was lonely. Or when he fooled himself into thinking that he was.  
"Why?"  
"Because you aren't going to want me around now, not a chance." He replied angrily, slamming a lever down a bit harder than was strictly necessary. "And you have every right to." He wasn't about to go into detail, that Amy amazed him in almost the same way that Rory did. That really he wanted to just- well, he wasn't sure. Timelords were different than humans. _Sex_ wasn't the same, it was more intimate- you shared each other's memories and terrors. In a moment you knew everything about each other and you thought and breathed as one being and maybe the fact that the Doctor had been around humans for so long- maybe it made him afraid of himself. Ignorant of the differences between races until it became real.  
"Doctor." Amy interjected, her voice significantly more irritated. "Stop throwing a fit, you stupid head. That's what I _wanted_ to hear." She grinned at him, bouncing a little as she took two steps away. Then she turned, another thought crossing her mind.  
"Also, Doctor, I think it'd be wise if you told 'im. He's being sulky and it's really quite boring."  
I thought my star-dusted man was going to throw something, honestly. but he simply leaned against the console and thought. About being angry, what he was going to do, what sort of dangerous game Amy was playing at. She didn't know that he'd been through this, all of it. Well, excepting her from the equation. He'd had to watch maybe one of the most painful things in his life, more so than a bloody war between species. Instead, a sickening battle between a man and endless time.


	2. Check-ups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens and there's things and Amy's creepy and might just do something about it all soon if the stupid Doctor doesn't just freaking break the tension.  
> Also, Romans don't like tea, apparently.

Rory had been waiting for- he wasn't quite sure- about twenty years. His helmet lay ignored several feet away, sword impaled on a great wooden door that had been speared in boredom a hundred times over. He'd been drawing with his finger in the dust, a mural. Stupid swirling designs around the Pandorica that resembled Van Gho's work.  
He stopped in the middle of a line, closing his eyes for a moment and flattening his palm to the floor. That sound. No, he wasn't going mad, he was sure of it. The TARDIS, in all it's glory, maybe the Doctor had made a mistake and dropped in on accident. He still didn't open his eyes, but he could feel himself being suddenly bathed in bright light.  
"Hello Rory!" Came a refreshingly cheery voice. The Roman's eyes broke open, his features sharp with excitement. He hadn't used his voice in ages, months, so he simply held his hand up in greeting.  
"Oh, it's good to see you. I brought you a few souvenirs from my last trip, thought you might need something to do." That idiot went on to say, stepping out of his box and blurring a few lines of Rory's mural. It didn't phase him.  
"By the way," The Doctor put his hand on Rory's shoulder, his eyes sweeping all of his features as if doing a check to make sure he was working.  
"How do you feel?"  
It took him a second to get his voice and smile operating, but he eventually did.  
"Old."  
"Ah." The Doctor concealed an almost-sad smile as he pulled Rory up, dusting him off while he spoke. "Well, you've got a few more years to go."  
"Yeah."  
"Come along, mister Pond, I think you need a little break from guard duty. Don't worry- I'll monitor the Pandorica, it'll be safe." The Doctor was reaching into his jacket for his sonic screwdriver out of habit, to check Amy's vital signs, but stopped himself halfway. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have the only key to release Amelia out in front of the Roman like that. Not when he still had an eternity to go.  
~~~~~

"Tea." Rory said blankly, looking down into his cup. The Doctor nodded excitedly, watching the Roman hold his cup like a teenager would watch their role model as they spoke. He was sitting next to him on the smallish two-person chair in the console room, both with a cup in their hands, one looking at the other almost uncomfortably close.  
"Yes, tea." The Doctor finally repeated back to him, his finger absently rimming the brink of his own.  
"You made me tea." The Roman said this like he didn't understand the concept.  
"Well I had to make _something._ And that's what you Brits do, yeah?" He smiled into his cup, not drinking.  
"And how come I come by and all you can do is complain about my tea? Didn't you miss me?"  
Rory let out a sharp laugh that sounded strange from misuse. He looked at the adventurer next to him for a while, his eyes making nervous cuts to his cup and then back up, like he was working something out in his head.  
"Yeah, sure I missed you, I guess. I miss home."  
"I'd offer to give you a ride, but I know you won't leave her." It was almost an insult, but Rory knew the Doctor meant it in a different way.  
That's when Rory realized what this was.  
A check-up.  
The Doctor had said something about the expanse of time driving Rory mad, he was only human. So now this comet was going to check in on him and make sure he was okay.  
And for some reason that made his entire attitude change- something just switched, an option he'd considered when they were still travelling together.  
He moved before he really thought-out what he was doing. His eyes gazed placidly into the Doctor's, as if he wasn't moving towards him, parting his lips. And even though the action felt slow, he still seemed surprised.  
The Doctor's eyebrows shot up, and there was a soft sound much like an "oh".  
He didn't reject it though, these lips on his own.  
That's all it was. Just a kiss. Neither of them were really even sure what it meant.  
I guess you can see why Rory left so quickly, shooing the Doctor off in his nervous way.  
~~~~~

Actually coming out and admitting to _himself_ that he cared so much about- well, anyways, it was hard. He'd slipped away long enough to get angry about it, how this happened with Rose- how really, she was the only one to get a happy ending. Rory and Amelia would go on after he was gone and have a happy life, and he'd be left, in a way, taking the slow path. It was ironic, really. In many ways he wondered if he'd ever, _ever_ find anyone like him. Someone immortal to rampage the universe with, someone who wouldn't get into trouble he couldn't fix, someone who wasn't so brilliant that he would be absolutely broken over if he lost.  
So far it looked like the only person the Doctor would deem appropriate was a dalek.  
"Doctor." Amy interjected, leaning against the outside of the TARDIS with him. He was looking out over the obsidian cliffs of a planet not too far from Earth, actually. The sea was a deep maroon color as a result of the minerals in it, casting purple and red light to dance up the cliffs and reflect off again. It was beautiful.  
And it took his mind off of Amy pressuring him and Rory giving him nervous glances. Everything felt so... _on edge_. Tense. It was ridiculous.  
"He didn't actually tell you anything, did he?" The Doctor asked, still looking out over the horizon.  
"Nope. But it's not hard to see. He wouldn't give me a direct answer, so I was quite sure."  
"Why?"  
"Why what?" She replied, her arms crossed as she looked him over.  
"Why're you so keen on me admitting that I happen to fancy your husband? I'm a Timelord- any way I say it in human terms will sound shallow and won't be... _right_. And it's not like I can just speak Gallifreyan at him. That's the only thing I consistently detest about your language, that's it's not as... _descriptive._ "  
"You're good with words. Do it. Aren't you getting sick of the tension?"  
"Yeah." The Doctor said it like a child that was getting scolded by it's mother, knowing that here was more trouble to come.  
~~~~~

Rory was trying to figure out a way to climb on top of the Pandorica now. This was about sixty years in- now there was paint all along the walls, stars and constellations and spaceships and exploding stars. He'd been studying things. Theories in "modern" medicine, religions (even though he didn't believe in them, it was interesting), anything he could find and do without leaving Amy. He'd thought about his stupid move a while ago- how the Doctor had hurried out and the huge possibility he wouldn't be coming back. In two thousand years, he wouldn't acknowledge that it had happened and hopefully the Doctor would do the same.  
Still.  
He didn't regret it, exactly.  
Suddenly he slipped, skidding down the side of the box and landing on his feet for the twentieth time. This time it wasn't because of his own clumsiness or mistake. It was because there was a knock on he door.  
"Um... hello?" The Roman called, his voice uncertain. No one knew about the underground Pandorica other than himself.  
"Hello Rory!" The Doctor exclaimed, busting the large (very damaged) wooden door open and nearly hitting Rory with it.  
"Hi."  
The cosmic man wasn't put off by the other's lingering uncertainty- he didn't blame him for it, no, he simply took the thin wooden box on a table. The Roman instantly recognized it as a chess board.  
"I just thought you'd like some company, eh?" The excited Doctor grinned at him, setting up the pieces like he'd just come over to an old friend's to do something routine.


	3. Lots of cliffhangers and Amy gets frisky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's cliffhangers, Rory's got nightmares and the Doctor gets frantic.

"Why don't you want to-"  
"Because I can't! I physically, morally can't! This happened before... If I tell him anything, it's just-" The Doctor's hair was sticking up in strange places, his shirt was rumpled and his jacket had been tossed to the side, his appearance seeming to mimic the frustration and fear boiling inside of him. He'd spent about three hours stowed away in the library, glaring through some mysterious files about memory and a book called "Humanistics" that seemed to have been read hundreds of times, though none of those times were recent. He was a child avoiding chores, pretending to be busy so Mom wouldn't come find him.  
He was dodging Amy's questioning look that pressured him into something he didn't want to do. Then, of course, the Roman wandered in, lost in the endless hallways of the TARDIS. He'd really been looking for the kitchen, but he was a bit off course and maybe influenced a little by myself.  
So my thief stormed out of the library and was instantly confronted by Amy, who really was looking for him. Maybe she was helped a little along the way.  
"What do you mean 'this happened before'?" She replied, a hint of confusion mixed with infinite frustration at her dear Doctor.  
"So many times. Donna- you don't know Donna, of course not, but Rory was waiting for _two thousand years_ , you don't understand. Humans weren't _built_ to live that long, Amy, and Rory sat in a stone palace watching a box for an eternity, and that't not counting him being _Rory_. Don't you think he'd have slipped away at some point?" The Doctor was advancing towards her, his voice dropping and rising like the scariest roller-coaster, each word coated in thick pleading passion about what he was saying. It was like all the times the Doctor begged with someone not to do something stupid and kill themselves, desperate to save the lives of innocent people, and now he was doing the same for Rory.  
"I didn't realize the gravity of it before- but it could remind him-"  
"What do you have to do with the time of the Pandorica?" She cut in, seeming completely lost.  
"Everything!" The Doctor shouted, his hands accentuating his words. "I have and will, I'm the reason that Rory came out of that with his sanity intact, so please. Don't." Amy didn't reply to that. She wasn't sure how to for a moment, her mind racing as everything began to make sense, even without the Doctor explaining it. She could understand a lot more than what credit was given to her.  
The Doctor's refreshed fear of the subject was due tohis most recent visit to the Roman, which had brought back all too well how real this was.  
Now the image hung fresh in his mind of his friend falling apart, and he _couldn't_ handle that.  
~~~~~

"....Chess?"  
"Yes, chess. I'll let you move first." The Doctor replied happily, looking up at Rory like an excited puppy who's master had just come home from a long day of work. It was like nothing had happened. The Roman gave him a confused look, half turned towards the door, obviously thinking something out in his head once again.  
"Is this the first time you've come to visit me?"  
"For me? No, actually, I'm somewhere in the twenties. For you it's earlier... I did that on purpose." His tone wanted Rory to dismiss that last bit, and he graciously did.  
"Where's the TARDIS?" Rory asked, cautiously sitting down on the stool across from him. He looked over the board curiously, liking how the pieces were- glass, all clear with some sort of swirling sparkling substance in them. They were like the Doctor's eyes when you looked really close, a thousand worlds in a thousand times, all beautiful and shinning and intricately woven together in a way that didn't make sense right up until it did.  
But they were only chess pieces, and he reminded himself of that. One set white-tinged, the other set a deep, swirling cobalt.  
".... The Egyptians thought it was interesting. I'm letting them borrow it for a little while." The Doctor said, his tone a little less cheery.  
"They took it, didn't they?" Rory asked, a hint of a smile in him .  
"Yeah." The Doctor grumbled, before returning his attention back to the chessboard. "Not to worry, I'll have it all fixed soon. Thought that in the meantime I'd make a trip over!" 

"Okay." Rory replied simply, not seeming as happy about that as the Doctor had hoped.  
The Roman moved a pawn forward two spaces, seeming almost put-out.  
"What's wrong?"  
There was a silence as the Doctor moved, while Rory looked over the pieces hard. He didn't usually play chess- there were a few months in school where Amy was obsessed and played him constantly, but that was ages ago. Besides, she always won anyways.  
"Nothing's wrong. I've got my box. No one's come. It's all very boring." He said, much in Rory fashion.  
The Doctor leaned forward a little bit, his eyes pulling Rory's to meet them as he put him under a pin.  
"Rory, _what's wrong?_ "  
There was a silence of the facade, nothing was wrong, of course not. Then the Roman sighed, his eyes down on his plastic hands. He knew that the Doctor would just be persistent until he relented, so there was no use fighting him- besides, he was kinda freaked too.  
"I've been having nightmares." He finally said, looking up with an expression that explained everything he didn't understand. "And they're about you."  
~~~~~

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have come with you!" Amy shouted after him as the Doctor marched off into the TARDIS.  
"Because, Amy, do you really think your presence would have _helped_ him?" He replied, knowing that the Roman in question couldn't hear them. The walls were too thick and, dimensionally speaking he was about twenty miles away. In human terms, at least- which brought a slightly less important question to mind about how one would convert Timelord units of measure to human ones.  
He stopped in the control room, setting a course for a planet made mostly out of cheese. They had excellent wine there, ironically, and he was in the mood for something a bit more... _domestic_ , anyways. Maybe it would take Amy's mind off of him and put it more on her husband if he set them up on a date.  
Also, the pope of R''a was going to be there and he was curious about a certain thing to do with the Egyptians. R''a was a civilization directly connected with Earth's Egyptians- generations upon generations, and the pharohs really did come back. Quite an event, he made a note to take Rory and Amy to see it sometime.  
"No, but still- I could have done something! I could have helped." She fumed, thundering after him around the console as he flipped switches. He very abruptly turned to face her, taking her shoulders in his hands. The last thing in the world he wanted right now was for Amy to be cross- even though she often was- but he needed her for this. He needed her anyways, but this was especially important. His expression was surprisingly calm and almost sad, those vortex eyes searching hers for help.  
"Amy, I'm sorry. There's nothing you could have done." He almost murmured.  
There was a pause, in which he expression changed. "I know, stupid-head." She gave him a small smile- she knew Rory enough to figure that if she _had_ showed up he would have been torn apart. Knowing that your wife is all well and fine but also in danger ten feet away was tormenting to even think about properly. And then he realized what she'd done.  
She'd let his guard down again.  
That was about time the other Pond kissed him.  
~~~~~

"Tell me about these nightmares."  
Rory looked off to the side, his eyes dark.  
"I don't understand them. It's you, but it's not. Amy and I aren't there. You're- you look different." He said hesitantly, his eyes flickering to the board as the Doctor moved.  
"Okay." He hadn't told the Ponds- well, hadn't really explained- how he regenerated. They'd seen evidence of it occasionally but he'd never fully explained it- he didn't usually get around to mentioning that he could change faces until it was actually happening. Bad habit. So how would Rory know something so secret, accident or not?  
"I don't know. It's weird. Probably nothing." He shrugged it off, reaching out and moving a piece across the board, taking the Doctor's rook. Good move.  
"No, Rory, tell me." His tone was serious, though he was trying not to scare the Roman into telling him. It didn't matter, really, he was already spooked and barely hiding it.  
"It feels real every time, you know? Like the things you hear about in movies. You never seem to realize that I'm there- but then again it took me a while to figure out that the person running around was actually you. You're... complete makeover." In a way, Rory knew that his 'nightmares' weren't just that. They had to be something more, something important once again that he wasn't too keen on being a part of, considering things like this usually ended in his death. Yeah, he always came back, but it wasn't too convenient.  
The Doctor dragged a piece a few spaces forward, cornering Rory's bishop.  
"And?"  
"And there's a woman. Her name for some reason sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it."  
"Yeah? What's her name?" The cosmic man sighed, unsure what to do with Rory but hoping that he could simply ignore the blaring obvious danger and maybe it would go away. He watched the Roman move his rook forward, taking a pawn. Their game seemed slow and haphazard. Neither of them were really paying attention to it- and maybe the Doctor wanted Rory to win anyways.   
"Clara Oswin Oswald- does that mean anything?"


	4. Rory's Got Leakage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Humans are weird like that, Rory gets mad, and the Doctor ditches his date.

Amy didn't act like nothing happened.  
Of course she wouldn't.  
Humans are weird like that.  
Instead, she made it obvious, a kind of irritation behind every time she flirted with either of them, which was happening more frequently and _much_ more publicly.  
My theif was getting more and more frustrated with it, trying to convince her that this was all going to do nothing but, in his own frustrated words, "fuck up the wibbly-wobbly and hurt Rory in the crossfire".  
Never before had Amy relentlessly _provoked_ them like this- Rory too, who would watch angrily from the other side of the console as she passed by the Doctor a little too close, who's head would snap up every time she made a passing compliment with a little too much subtext behind it. It made them both irritable, constantly, and maybe the worst thing that could happen just as they were both starting to glare at her and each other from across the room was for the TARDIS to break and leave them stranded and unable to leave the Console room because the rest was flooded with Byzantix crystals that were radioactive enough that even the Doctor couldn't go pull the appropriate levers.  
Predictably, that's exactly what happened.  
I might have had some influence on our course, taking us through a dangerous stream that trailed behind an off-course planet.  
So, forced interaction. Not really the most stress-free of solutions on my part, but... Well, Theif is stubborn and I'm sure we'd all hate to see them stop being friends.  
The Doctor let out a frustrated growl as he slammed a lever down uselessly.  
"Doctor." Amy started, but he simply turned around and looked at her. Instantly, she was silent, as if his eyes alone killed her words.  
Rory was sitting on the stairs, elbows on his thighs, fingers tangled together just past his knees, trying not to be involved. He was brooding about something, like our cosmic man had this entire time.  
"No, Amy, you don't do that. You don't _say my name_ because you're doing this. I don't know why, but you are, and I've _told_ you, it's dangerous, you don't understand..." He turned his glare away from her and tried not to look at Rory, who's eyes were hot on him now in a mix of _'how dare you treat my wife like that'_ and _stop withholding information from me.'_  
~~~~~

The Doctor's eyes narrowed a little, looking off to the side. It felt like he should know the name... but he didn't.  
"No..." _At least, not yet it doesn't._ He suddenly jumped up, ignoring that it was his turn to move, and whipped out his screwdriver.  
"What... what are you doing?" Rory asked, turning to look at him without getting up. The traveler was moving all over the room, scanning it, that curious-serious look on his face that he got when someone said something wibbly-wobbly who wasn't himself.  
"I'm looking for the leak." He answered shortly, concentrating. "You've seen me with a different face, yeah?"  
"Y-Yeah." Rory replied, his voice faltering a little with uncertainty. "What do you mean, leak?"  
The Doctor exclaimed as his screwdriver made a high-pitched noise. He sounded like a child just discovering something new and exciting, _OoOoh!_  
"There's a crack in time, as you know- a crack that goes both ways. We've only seen it _eating,_ but I think maybe it's able to leak things through as well." His voice was the one he used when he was still figuring something out as he explained it.  
"Maybe not physical things, but... the past. And possibly the future." When his sonic made the sound again, he was pointing it directly at Rory- when he looked up, his excited smile faded.  
"No, that's not right."  
"Doctor, what is it?" Rory asked, his eyebrows drawing down curiously. The Doctor turned away from him and walked around the box waving his screwdriver only to reappear on the other side and stop in front of the Roman again.  
"Not right!" His urgent voice rose, as he was reduced to hitting the screwdriver against his hand and pointing it back at  
Rory.  
~~~~~

"Doctor-"  
"Shut up!" The comet snapped at Rory, thirty minutes in. He'd practically dismantled half of the console, wires sticking out all around him, clinging around his waist and wrists like the TARDIS was trying to absorb him slowly enough that he wouldn't notice.  
Amy was sitting to the side now, like Rory but nowhere near him. She couldn't describe what she was feeling. Guilt- frustration. Impatience. Worry.  
 _What have I done?_  
There was a silence in which Rory stood up, a cloud around him like he'd electrified the air with his presence. It wasn't hard to see him as a two thousand-year seasoned Centurion there, his mouth set in a firm, angry, frown.  
 _"Doctor."_  
It was a surprise, almost, when the comet stopped what he was doing, leaning against the console around him with his hands on it's surface. He looked up sharply, his expression complicated.  
"Well? What is it? I assume you have something very important to say, otherwise you wouldn't be so Roman-y." He made a lazy gesture with one of his hands. He was- wow, the _Doctor_ was _nervous_?  
When Rory spoke, his words were slow and patient, with the making of a storm lying just beneath a calm facade.  
"Doctor. What are you not telling me?"  
There was another one of those silences that held everything in balance, like delicate strands of a spider's web sticking together intricately, but perfectly. There were no right words my theif could say at that moment to make everything okay, so he wasn't going to try.  
~~~~~

" _You're_ the leak."  
"What do you mean, _I'm_ the leak?" The Roman asked, with that tone of voice he used when Amy and the Doctor had left him behind in the conversation.  
"I mean..." The Doctor held his screwdriver up, looking closely at the readings. "You went through the crack in the wall, the fracture in time and space. You came back with that same... You're fractured in a way that you're getting information in your head that shouldn't be there. You're seeing my future." He explained, not fully understanding it himself.  
"O-kay." He nodded once, then looked back at the Doctor. "What again?"  
Exasperated, the comet sighed, trying to explain it in a way they'd both understand.  
"You went through the crack in time, okay? Now, you came back with some sort of- contaminant, I don't know, maybe it's still in your head- but you're picking things up from what we're trying to stop. The explosion isn't over quite yet, not until this little thing is over. And even then I don't know if you'll be fixed." He flicked the Roman's forehead, making him blink.  
"Then why am I only getting things about you?"  
There it was.  
That look, the one that meant the Doctor knew the answer, but wasn't about to tell.  
The one that Amy and Rory had come to know so well their stomachs lurched at the sight of it.  
"I don't know. Rory, keep the chess set. I've got to go get my TARDIS back." He called, heading for the doors.  
"But, Doctor, wait! How-" Of course he didn't stop, and of course he didn't come back to explain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry about the chapter title. I'm immature.  
> Also, in the next few chapters I'm going to have to move the rating to explicit because of reasons. Just a warning.


	5. No One's Reading This Anyways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rory Williams loses his mind.   
> .... doesn't he?

"Tell me!" The Roman snapped, watching the Doctor's expression soften.  
He untangled himself from the console wires, seeming to search for words in them as he pried himself away. After a moment of deafening silence, he opened his mouth, his eyes directly looking into the Roman's for the first time in a while.  
"You went insane, Rory." A breath, almost steeling himself, "...and I fixed you up. Put a wall in your head that blocked it out. There was nothing I could do- You'd done something so exotic as leaping straight through a crack in time. I don't know why I expected you to be able to cross unharmed or unaffected, but... What I did was weak, instead of helping you through it. I didn't stay with you like I should have. I could have. If you could wait that long, then I should have been able to as well. But I didn't, and I'm sorry. And now... now you're either going to revert back to that man, the person who isn't Rory, and I'll have to do it again, or the leak will be gone and-"  
It was like he was trying to speak fast so he could say what needed to be heard without the Roman noticing, his voice as grim as the expression he wore. He stopped talking as the Roman's face changed. A hand rose to his forehead, obscuring his hairline as he closed his eyes.  
"Something's- fuck." He cursed, taking a stumbling step back. Amy's head rose from her hands, looking at them both with an alarmed expression. The Doctor's anxiety rose- he didn't really know how all this worked, what was going to happen to Rory or what he'd remember- there were a few things that he wasn't sure he wanted to resurface again.   
~~~~~

"Hello Rory!" The Roman looked up so quick he nearly lost his balance, sandal-clad feet dangling from the edge of the Pandorica where he perched, sitting atop it like a panther in a tree.  
"Doctor." He stated softly, his voice complex as the emotions in him. The stranger leaned over the edge of the Pandorica, looking at the man as if he was more alien than he was.   
"Well come on down, I can't talk to you up there, now can I?" The Doctor called up with a smile, as if he didn't notice how different the Roman was acting. Ever the cosmic dork. Rory nodded, watching the Doctor carefully. His fall was graceful, landing with barely a sound, his fingertips brushing the floor and continuing the falling motion in a liquid movement before he stood again. It was like a rehearsed dance. Very... panther-like. Very un-Rory-like to be graceful. That worried the Doctor until the Roman stumbled over his sandals and confirmed that he wasn't so balanced after all.  
"How long has it been then?" The Doctor asked in a cheery voice, eyes far from smiling.   
"Three hundred years."   
There was a heavy silence, the comet staring at him with his mouth set in a grim line while the Roman closed the distance between the two. His sandals made a hollow, soft sound against the ground.   
"Are you okay?" He finally asked, his beautiful eyes searching Rory's.   
"No." He replied shortly, still taking steps- he was a little closer than really necessary now- and then he took another step, his hands leaving his sides and grabbing the Doctor's jacket. He roughly pulled him close, breath hot on the comet's face as he glared down at him.  
The Doctor didn't move, his hands frozen in an almost-protesting sort of way behind Rory.  
"What is it?" He finally whispered, almost like he was playing.  
The Roman wasn't so much staring him down as he was reading him, like everything he'd done was written on his face and maybe he'd experience it himself if he looked hard enough.   
And then he did something half-predictable. His movements slowed down like time itself was holding it's breath in this moment, watching as the distance between them closed and Rory's dry lips brushed against the Doctor's softer ones. Eyes instinctively closing, the traveler didn't look like he was going to stop him. This time was different. There was confidence behind it, when Rory tilted his head so he could take in the Doctor's lips again. The Roman barely felt the fingers threading into his hair, or noticed how easily the Doctor let him do this, how his own fingers were loosening in the fabric of the jacket that was stolen from that hospital back on earth.  
Rory was the one that pulled away, breathing slightly harder.   
The Doctor's expression had gone from cheery, to serious, to incredibly sad.   
"Rory, are you okay?" He asked again. The Roman shook his head silently, fear suddenly growing in his eyes. The Doctor almost visibly flinched- so it was starting.  
"What is it?"   
"They're back. The dreams. They're turning into nightmares." Rory didn't even ask, he seemed to understand that the Doctor he was talking to now had seen him at worse times. He didn't want to think about it too much, how it would get worse. He already felt... different. Like he couldn't just step back into the TARDIS and resume his life the way it was.   
Either way, the man in the bow-tie simply took his hands into his own, and that comfort in itself settled the Roman. Affection was something Rory had been short on before he'd become a centurion, let alone sitting in this empty hell. Anything to him was exhilarating, the smallest touch the biggest comfort.   
"I'm sorry. Rory. I really am, I'm sorry." The Doctor replied, looking over the Roman as if he'd find a solution written on him.  
"What do you mean, you're sorry?" Rory asked, his voice changing.   
"I wish there was something I could do. There's always a way out. I don''t understand it, I've been all across the universe trying to find a way to block the leak in your head but I _can't_ , don't you see?" He replied, his voice becoming stressed and agitated. He didn't want to take those memories away. It was meant only for occasions he couldn't help. It was... he couldn't do it again after Donna.   
~~~~~

Different expression flashed across the Centurion's face- horror, admiration, what seemed to be guilt, infatuation, fury, pain. His eyes flashed between Amy and the Doctor, looking at her like she was a precious shiny object in a curio shop, and him like he was some sort of devilish trickster, a summer fling that he'd forgotten about.   
I suppose 'summer fling' was the proper term for it.   
He put his hand on the Doctor's shoulder as he passed him, lifting Amy to her feet and grinning at her.  
"I haven't _told_ you how precious you are, Amy, God- I don't think I've said I love you in over... sixteen hours? That's a _scandal._ " He giggled like a half-drunk groom-to-be, almost repeating his words verbatim. Then, still holding her hand, he turned to the Doctor and his expression turned mischievous.   
"You once popped out of a cake and told me that my fiance kissed you." He threw a look at Amy over his shoulder.  
"Well, we fucked. A few times. Possibly." He laughed, everything disconnected, his movements fluid and loose as if he wasn't a solid object. The Doctor was leaning against the console, not quite sure what to say or do, Amy returning the look.  
Only hers was a bit... angrier. And slightly impressed.  
"Rory." The Doctor started, the Roman's eyebrows quirking up suggestively.   
"You couldn't get enough of me, could yooou?" He paused, the smile still on his face when the next words flew across his lips at the volume of thunder. "ThaT'S WHY I DIED! OVER, AND OVER AND OVER, AND OVER! YOU COULN'T JUST LEAVE ME ALONE. YOU COULDN'T LET ME GO, COULD YOU?" He moved to step towards the comet, aggression bristling on his features- aggression was alien on him. Rory Williams was the cute, confused, mostly left-behind Roman who was also the most reliable and surprising player on the board. Rory Williams wasn't aggressive unless he was protecting Amy. The girl-who-waited put her hand firmly on his arm, holding him back as her eyes searched him questioningly. She was trying to understand what was going on before becoming irate- _fix my husband._  
"Doctor." Rory paused, as if in thought, his expression docile and confused, having changed like the lights being turned off. "Something's wrong, isn't it?"  
~~~~~

"It's okay." He shrugged simply. "I don't- Why are you worried about it now?" The Roman asked, his hand resting non-violently on the hilt of his sword as he stood in front of the Doctor. It had become a quirk of his over the years- perhaps it made him feel secure.  
"Because, Rory, I've come from... Well." He attempted a smile.  
"You've seen me, after all this?" Rory laughed lightly, that ever-nervous sounding one. "I can't be much, then, can I?"   
"Nah." The Doctor replied, peeking up at the Centurion with a small smile on his face. They both shared a laugh that seemed to make the Doctor younger, melting away some of the worry on him. His smile faltered a moment as he straightened. His eyes skimmed his hand, absently picking at the fabric of his clothes. He may have looked relaxed, but there was a thunderstorm raging inside him. Maybe there always was, all the time, but now it seemed barely-contained. Like at any moment he could either burst into tears or rage or simple stop speaking and stare off into the distance. His voice was surprising, then, because of how cautious it was. How every syllable was so carefully crafted, it was as if the words themselves could break.  
"Rory, are you sure I can't take you out of here?"   
_Are you sure I can't help you?_ Was the implied meaning that Rory took out of it.   
Silence fell over them like the thick white blanket of blizzard.   
That's what the Doctor did.   
He saved people.  
 _Rory, please let me save you._  
He didn't usually have to beg someone to let him help.   
It's not like Rory _wanted_ to be stuck here, that he liked seeing the world evolve, like staying here was something he did just to kill time while the universe ended. He wanted to go explore again and mean something.  
But he'd made a promise. Being the Roman meant that he couldn't walk away from someone he needed to protect. Being the Roman meant that he had to make _sure_ , that he'd stick it out because damned if he was going to leave the love of his life here to rot just because he got bored. Amy was safer with him, that was a fact. Being the Roman meant he would have the patience of an eternity, so he would stay.  
He wouldn't tell the Doctor about this vow for years yet, and he wouldn't understand the reaction it brought, either.  
"I'm sure. Sorry." Rory finally answered, a soft smile playing on his lips like the Doctor had done something sweet- and he had. He'd said probably the most perfect thing he could have.


	6. I will not be finishing this work.

I will not be finishing this work, but I will also not delete it, at least not right now. Sorry, anyone who actually did read this.


End file.
